Freedom Dues
Written by Indra Zuno⎮ Narrated by Sarah-Jane Drummey
Author: Indra Zuno
Narrator: Sarah-Jane Drummey
Length: 12 hours 5 minutes
Publisher: Spinning a Yarn Press
Released: Nov. 22, 2021
Genre: Historical Fiction
Synopsis
1729.
Blair Eakins is a 15-year-old Ulster Scot living in Ireland under the crushing weight of famine, poverty, and prejudice against his people. In search of a better future for himself and his beloved, he pays for passage to Philadelphia the only way he can: he commits himself as an indentured servant for a term of four years.
In London, 10-year-old orphan pickpocket Mallie Ambrose is arrested for stealing a handkerchief. After experiencing the horror of Newgate Prison, she is sentenced to "Transportation", bound into indentured servitude and exiled to Maryland for seven years.
As Blair and Mallie each endure hellish conditions, their paths eventually cross when they are acquired by the same owner. After Blair steps in to defend Mallie from their cruel master, the two escape and head west, finding unlikely allies among the Delaware Indians. But, as fugitives without rights, they live in constant fear of capture.
Meet the Author: Indra Zuno
Indra Zuno was born in Mexico, where she enjoyed a successful career as a performer in theater and television before turning to writing. She was a recipient of the 2017–2018 UCLA Claire Carmichael Scholarship in Novel Writing, and was subsequently nominated for the 2017 UCLA James Kirkwood Prize in Creative Writing and the 2018 UCLA Allegra Johnson Writing Prize. As part of her extensive research for her debut novel, Freedom Dues, Indra spent time in Northern Ireland, Pennsylvania, and two weeks aboard The Lady Washington, an eighteenth-century replica tall ship, washing decks and climbing
masts. She met with the Master Cordwainer at Colonial Williamsburg and with a member of the Delaware tribe who is the Director of the Lenape Language Project. Immersing herself in her subject, she read over one hundred books on white servitude, the Delaware tribe, and Scots-Irish immigration, and reviewed original eighteenth-century court records at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania and the Philadelphia Archives.
Jess has been a constant presence in the audiobook community since 2016, running The Audiobookworm and Audiobookworm Promotions. The only thing that surpasses her love of audiobook listening is the passion and zeal with which she promotes them.